SOMETHING TO GO WITH YOUR WATERMELON :

Lend Me an Ear (JASON EPSTEIN, August 11, 2002, NY Times)

By the early 1920's, word of eastern Long Island's rich soil, along with the news that the railroad now linked this farmland to world markets, spread to the potato farmers of Eastern Europe. Many soon settled on Long Island and transformed what had been small-scale vegetable farming into the industrial production of potatoes. Potato fields may still be seen here and there in the backcountry of eastern Long Island's villages, interspersed amid shallow-rooted, multimillion-dollar subdivisions. But most of the remaining arable land of the rich outwash plain is now devoted to vineyards, fruit orchards, tree farming and vegetable production for the many local farm stands whose abundant varieties of tomatoes, peppers, melons, lettuces, peaches and berries offer intense joy throughout the summer, to say nothing of the apples and squashes of September and October.

The villages that compose the towns of Southampton and East Hampton are famous for their corn, but in fact, the farmers in the area grow the same kinds of hybrid corn everyone else does, including inedible ornamental varieties (Indian corn) for Thanksgiving. If anything accounts for the corn's special quality, it may be the glacial topsoil. But more likely it's just that the modern hybrids are designed for sweetness -- and taste even better when enhanced by the sea air and the incredible light. All that is required for a summer feast is to toss a dozen shucked ears into boiling water. But with a little more effort, the same ears can achieve transcendence.

When we were kids our parents used to take us to Corn & Watermelon Festivals. That's pretty much all they served--roasted corn in the husk, big boiling vats of corn, and mountains of melon--though one supposes there was beer for the adults. Us kids, meanwhile, would spit watermelon seeds and smack each other over the head with the rinds, which break with a pleasingly comic effect and do fairly little permanent damage (I assume). Corn, watermelon, a sickening thwack rising up from your brother's skull...what a great country... Posted by Orrin Judd at August 11, 2002 9:16 AM